NOTE: This is a sort of semi-sequel to “Angry Questions”. Also, for some strange reason, I do not have the blueprints of the mansion stored firmly in my memory, so my description of certain places could be a little off. I hope this can be forgiven.

The sun was shining brightly. Normally speaking this wasn’t a bad thing, but today the sun had decided to put in that little bit of extra effort to turn the day from pleasantly warm into unbearably hot. It was the kind of day where nobody managed to amount to anything. It was so hot even the most fanatical super villain would postpone his diabolic schemes for world domination simply because he couldn’t get out his chair and do something destructive.

However, every downside has its upside and the students of Professor Xavier’s School For The Gifted had generously been given the day off to do whatever.

Most of them had decided to go swimming in the pool, although “swimming” wasn’t a very accurate word for it. Splashing about would have fitted their activities better. Kitty had managed to get her hands on a ball somewhere and she, Jean, Evan and Jubilee were playing a game of improvisational volleyball. Scott was lying on a beach chair, trying to work up a good tan.

Rogue sat in the shadows, looking at the scene. Unlike everyone else, she was fully clothed. And unlike everyone else, she wasn’t having any fun. All the other were swimming and laughing and splashing and acting like the immature teenagers they were. But not Rogue. No, Rogue had to stay away. Rogue had to make sure she wasn’t going to touch anyone. Rogue couldn’t put on a swimsuit and she certainly couldn’t dive into a pool filled with people.

Kurt materialised above the pool and soon fell in, creating a splash that hit Scott full on. A few stray drops landed on Rogue’s face. Scott stood up, laughing as he threatened Kurt. Kurt got out of the pool, gave Scott a mocking bow and ran for it. Scott ran after him. Everyone watched him go and laughed.

Rogue decided she was getting tired of all the good cheer and left the scene.

The sun wasn’t shining directly into Rogue’s room, so if she kept both the window and the door wide open the small breeze made the place almost bearable. Rogue flopped down onto her bed with an old Batman comic. She had already read it once too often, but she figured that the only other thing she could do was make her homework and it was too hot for that. Yeah, too hot. Convenient excuse.

Rogue rolled onto her back and entertained herself for a few minutes with all the unresolved sexual tension between the various characters. Then she got tired of it and flung the book into a corner. Rogue put her arms under her head and stared at the ceiling. It was only marginally more interesting than the comic had been.

After a few minutes of intense ceiling-studying, Rogue could hear the soft hum of Professor Xavier’s somewhere out on the hallway. It didn’t take long for the sound to stop. Rogue kept staring at the ceiling. She was pretty convinced that the Professor had stopped outside her door. He was probably debating whether or not he should say something helpful and fatherly. Rogue sure hoped not. After all, what was he able to say? “Rogue, it’s a pity you can’t join any of the others without getting Multiple Personality Disorder or without putting them all into comas, but you shouldn’t worry about that. After all, you should never forget that You Are Special Too.”

Yeah, like Rogue really wanted to hear that right now.

The hum of the wheelchair started up again, indicating Xavier’s departure. Rogue let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

“Hey Rogue,”

“Hey,” Rogue said.

She looked away from the ceiling at Kitty. It was obvious she had tried to dry herself, but that was pretty hard to do when you were wearing a soaking wet swimsuit. Rogue felt a pang of jealousy. Sure, if Kitty wasn’t careful she might sink to the very core of the earth, but at least she could wear a swimsuit without endangering anyone.

Rogue looked back up at the ceiling. It still looked exactly the same as the last time she looked.

“You can look back now,” Kitty said after a while.

Rogue got up to a sitting position. As it turned out, Kitty had sat down on her own bed as while. She was wearing a flimsy blue dress. Which was one more thing Rogue couldn’t wear without being worried.

“Something wrong?” Kitty asked.

Rogue shook her head. “Nah,” she said. “Just bored.”

“Want to, like, go do something? With me?”

Rogue frowned. This was new. “Like what?” she asked. Her tone sounded a tad suspicious.

The sun was very slowly starting to sink a little bit. It become a little cooler and inside her clothes, Rogue’s sweat stopped streaming and started gelling. It wasn’t much of an improvement. She and Kitty had finished their ice cream long ago, but they hadn’t returned to the mansion. Instead, they had just lounged about town, mostly seeking out the next shade or the next store with lots of air conditioning. In the end they had gone to the park since it had a lot of trees and therefore a lot of shade.

Rogue was having a good time. She hadn’t really expected to. Certainly not with Kitty. The girl was either a ditz or a rocket science, but she was rarely just human. Or mutant, depending on the way you looked at it.

But Kitty had turned out to be a pretty nice person, if a little too cheerful and a little too prone to physical contact.

They were sitting on a bench, facing a small lake. The ducks there didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about anything either.

“We should probably be heading back soon,” Kitty said.

“Yeah,” said Rogue.

“I had fun,” Kitty said. “How about you?”

A small smile crept over Rogue’s face before she could stop it. “Guess I had fun too.”

“I hope it wasn’t too painful for you.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Rogue said sarcastically.

Kitty smiled. “I think maybe we should this more often. You know, hang out with each other.”

Rogue shrugged. “Doesn’t actually sound half bad.”

Kitty smiled even more. “Great.”

Rogue quickly looked away from the smile and stood. “OK. Time to get going,” she said, a tad quicker than she had meant to.

“OK,” Kitty said, standing up as well.

As the two girls started walking, Kitty gently took Rogue’s hand. Rogue instinctively flinched, trying to get away.

“Oh, calm down,” Kitty said. “You’re wearing gloves, aren’t you?”

“I just…” Rogue started.

“Just?”

I just don’t like people touching me, was what Rogue wanted to say. But right now, it was a lie.